Pope Francis has started the Holy Year of Mercy for the Catholic Church.

VATICAN CITY — Pope Francis pushed open the great bronze doors of St. Peter's Basilica on Tuesday to launch his Holy Year of Mercy, declaring that mercy trumps moralizing in his Catholic Church.

Francis stood in prayer on the threshold of the basilica's Holy Door then walked through it, the first of an estimated 10 million faithful who will pass through over the course of the next year in a rite of pilgrimage dating back centuries.

The Pope did marry two flight attendants on his plane in Chile as well-that's a first for him.

A Vatican official hastily drew up an official, albeit handwritten marriage certificate, stating that the two had consented to the sacrament of marriage on Jan. 18 and that Francis had celebrated the marriage "aboard the papal plane from Santiago to Iquique."